How To Become A Plumbing Designer: What It Is and Career Path

What is a plumbing designer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Plumbing designers work on both residential and commercial properties to design effective plumbing and drainage systems. Their job responsibilities include obtaining specifications from clients, producing plumbing designs through CAD systems or other tools, creating schematics, and instructing construction personnel on how to turn the plumbing designs into a reality.

Moreover, plumbing designers are responsible for conducting quality assurance assessments to ensure that plumbing and drainage systems are safe, effective, and efficient. They may also produce technical content for marketing purposes, finding equipment, and other business functions in the company.

An associate's degree in drafting and design is the ideal (and often the minimum) qualification for this job. However, plumbing designers can also be mechanical and civil engineers. Either way, aspiring plumbing designers usually need to have experience in the industry and a deep understanding of design tools such as CAD software.

In terms of compensation, plumbing designers make around $64,000 a year, roughly $31 an hour. They usually work for construction companies but may also put up their own design business.

ScorePlumbing DesignerUS Average

Salary

4.8

Avg. Salary $61,468

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.4

Growth rate 2%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.4

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.11%

Asian 10.27%

Black or African American 3.44%

Hispanic or Latino 9.50%

Unknown 4.61%

White 72.08%

Gender

female 12.59%

male 87.41%

Age - 39

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 39

Stress level

7.4

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.6

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

5.1

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a plumbing designer

Explore plumbing designer education requirements

Most common plumbing designer degrees

Associate

41.9 %

Bachelor's

38.9 %

Master's

5.6 %

Start to develop specific plumbing designer skills

Skills	Percentages
Revit	19.56%
Plumbing	18.43%
Fire Protection	14.96%
MEP	7.41%
HVAC	4.88%

Complete relevant plumbing designer training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-2 years on post-employment, on-the-job training. New plumbing designers learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a plumbing designer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real plumbing designer resumes.

Research plumbing designer duties and responsibilities

Lead the development of BIM modeling content for the architecture team as a direct report to the executive and lead architects.
Provide reports, coordination of shop drawings, review between MEP and structural.
Create plans from schematic design through construction documents using AutoCad and Revit for all MEP systems.
Generate BIM plans for clients, as well as AUTOCADD drawings.

Prepare your plumbing designer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your plumbing designer resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a plumbing designer resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable plumbing designer resume templates

Build a professional plumbing designer resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your plumbing designer resume.